Of Gods and Metal Men
by KatieCharlotte
Summary: Mourning the loss of Donna, the Doctor crashes on a moon battling a rogue squadron of Cybermen. But the Time Lord has to battle his own prejudices when he learns that one Cyberman is fighting to save the remaining inhabitants.
1. Crash

**Author's Note: Okay, so this story is set after the tenth Doctor has just lost Donna, he's soul searching out in space, trying to get over the guilt and loneliness. **

**Hope you enjoy, please review if you have the time. **

* * *

**Crash**

The TARDIS had never felt so empty, not since Donna had gone – her often opinionated and resounding voice had always rebounded from the walls of the great ship and hit the Doctor's ears with such force that he had believed himself to be in danger of losing his hearing; now the most deafening noise was simply the silence, the endless silence. It was just the Doctor, just the Doctor and his ship travelling amongst the stars trying to find a place where he could find some sort of peace…

He'd tried to ignore the loneliness, tried to convince himself that he wasn't completely divided from everyone else – there'd been adventures, of course there had, he'd made new friends, created new allies and battled new creatures; but after every new encounter and every narrow escape from death and every victory, there was always that voice, like a looming shadow behind him, that emptiness that was there to remind him.

_You're alone Doctor._

No matter how odd it seemed, the silence was just too loud to bear; and when he was surrounded by others and action it just emphasised how alone he actually was, made his circumstances even more pitiful. The Doctor, once a member of the greatest species in all the universes was now just a lonely and forgotten man. He stood, hands in his pockets, by the TARDIS's controls and watched his magnificent ship's power core working steadily as he reminisced over one of the last journeys the TARDIS had taken, all of his friends and partners flying her together - the way a TARDIS was supposed to be flown.

But suddenly he was jolted from his thoughts and off his feet, the TARDIS fluctuated and failed, her engines giving in momentarily and the sirens sounding.

"What in the name of…?" the Doctor threw himself over the control panel and pulled the screen towards him, analysing his situation. "What was that!?" the TARDIS was literally tumbling through the air, as though affected by some odd pull of gravity. The screen in front of his face was displaying to him a planet gradually drawing nearer to his ship – of course it was the other way around, but naturally that didn't matter as seeing as either way would result in a rather large impact of the two. Panicking only a little, the Time Lord dived towards the handbrake and pulled down with all of his weight; the TARDIS did slow a little but it wasn't enough to prevent what now seemed as a rather obvious head-on encounter; the small television screen still flashed it's message "WARNING: IMPACT IMMINENT!"

"Hold on," said the Doctor to himself, and to the ship, as the distance between the two of them and the planet became metres. However, instead of being flattened against the planet's surface, the small blue box crashed straight through the first layer of ground and came to a complete halt twenty metres below; immediately the Time Lord stood up and shook himself, running one hand through his fantastically styled hair. "Well, that could have gone worse." he beamed. The TARDIS didn't reply but the Doctor felt as though the shaken ship disagreed. "I best go and see where we are then…" and with that he scrambled to the doors and pulled them wide open.

It was odd to realise that the TARDIS had in fact landed slanted; inside of the ship one could never tell but trying to climb out of lopsided doors was something the Doctor had not expected to have to do. He scanned his whereabouts closely and then stretched his long, thin legs out from his craft and clambered into what appeared to be a mining tunnel of some sort, one that hadn't been quite obviously abandoned, as he could tell from the lighting system that ran along the ceiling of the tunnel; it was state of the art technology, but hadn't been used in some weeks. The light from the sky above shone through from the crater-size hole that had just been created and offered the Doctor a way to see his surroundings a little easier. Only after only a few seconds of scanning did the Doctor really wish he couldn't see anything. In fact, he wished more than anything that the tunnel he now found himself in, was somewhere else entirely …

Something was moving in the distance, coming ever closer with thunderous footsteps and silver armour that even from so far away glinted menacingly when it caught small rays of light. It wasn't hard to work out who they were, they were _Cybermen._

The Doctor's hearts began to beat frantically, fear took hold and he turned, realising with terrible dread that until his ship was upright there was no way he would either get her flying or even get past her. And yes, he might be pretty amazing, but this Time Lord's form was rather scrawny and not built for shifting spaceships; TARDIS's were known to be very heavy objects.

The footsteps were coming closer, the sound of heavy metal echoed through the tunnel; there were at least three of them, too many for him to take on with just a sonic screwdriver; _but how did they get here?? _Voids apparently weren't as hard as he'd thought to escape from…

He stood quite still as he prepared to meet his enemy, face solemn and fists clenched; he was as ready as he ever would be in such circumstances, though he'd at least try to talk his way out of this predicament – like always, naturally.

Of course, something else happened that the Doctor had not expected, something that made him dive forwards in both shock and need to get out of the way; the TARDIS shook violently and suddenly jolted from her lopsided position back to her base and then was seemingly pushed – almost shoved - to the side of the tunnel by a figure behind, clearly wanting to get in on the action.

"There is no way my luck is that bad."

What stood behind was a fourth Cyberman, standing adamantly and looking at the Doctor blankly; it was a little different from any design he had ever seen, the metal armour had been modified, made to look more futuristic –more individual – but individuality and Cybermen were two different things all together… As he stared at it, the great silver monstrosity paced forward and… thrust out a hand to the Time Lord.

"Come with me if you want to survive."

The three other Cybermen had emerged from the shadows of the tunnel now and all three were advancing a little quicker after seeing their target; at the moment they were of little importance to the Doctor who was completely flabbergasted by this new arrival…

"What??"

"I repeat; come with me if you want to survive."

Still the Doctor didn't get it. "…What??" There was no way that this was actually happening.

A fifth set of footsteps approached from the end of the tunnel the fourth Cyberman come from, they were far quicker and far lighter than any mechanical being and soon after the Doctor had noticed them, a young woman appeared from the darkness; she was tall and slender with short and scruffy black hair, she was wearing a well-worn combat outfit very similar to that of a guerrilla warrior, her skin was smudged with dirt and soot and she was yielding a few rather impressive pieces of weaponry – impressive maybe, but the Doctor couldn't help but immediately disapprove, he didn't like guns. Facing the advancing Cybermen, she quickly shot a look back at the gawping Doctor and lifted a set of goggles to reveal a pair of electric blue eyes; "Do as he says," she ordered him, "Or you'll be a lot stiffer than you are now if these guys get a hold of you. Zak!" This was aimed at the Cyberman it appeared, "Get him out of here!"

The Cyberman nodded and then bent down to face the Doctor. "Orders are orders." Yanking him to his feet, the metal creation cupped one hand around his arm before dragging him down the tunnel he had just appeared from; the young woman turned back to look at the remaining three Cybermen and laughed. "Three – nil to me, I think;" she boasted as she pulled a slim and circular grenade from a pocket in the belt strapped around her body, pressed a button in its centre and tossed it at the looming figures before she shot away. It attached itself to the middle creature's chest and four seconds later, exploded.

The mighty blast behind almost knocked the Doctor over but the girl who had already caught up with them grabbed his elbow firmly, he looked down at her as they continued running and she winked, a cheeky grin on her face; after a few more metres they stopped and both the girl and the Doctor dropped to the ground panting, catching their breath. The Cyberman however, merely turned to where they had just come from, his Cybus Industries logo opened partially and emitted a thin blue streak of light that shot through the darkness; then it disappeared and his chest plate closed again, he turned back to the pair and looked down at them both. "Readings negative, all three Cyber beings deactivated; status of alien ship of unknown sentient being: still intact – mild singeing to wooden panels."

The Doctor had had enough. "Look, now just hold on for two seconds…!" he pushed himself back up to his feet and stared from the Cyberman to the teen still lying on the ground. "What just happened and why, why is this… this…" he struggled momentarily to think of a fitting word as he pointed at the metal contraption "…this _thing_, helping you?? And… and how is his technology so far advanced?? And just **what** is going on around here!?!"

"You only had to ask," replied the girl quite calmly. "This," she gestured to her companion, "is Zak, he is my partner and I, am Kura Desporena Atropos. I'm the one who has modified his technology with up-to-date weaponry in order to help us defeat our enemy. We're two of some of the last people alive on this planet defending against the Cybermen. And Zak, despite being a Cyberman, is completely on our side."

In all those of years of travelling, now the Doctor could safely say that he had seen absolutely _everything._


	2. Too Many Questions

**Author's Note: just a quick thanks to those who reviewed my last chapter, they were the first i've ever received so i was extremely grateful. this chapter is less of a 'boom-pow-whatonearthisgoingon?' chapter, it's sort of linking what has just happened to what is going to happen. i've done my research too, ensuring the characters and quotes from actual episodes are accurate but if you see anything wrong, please tell me :) enjoy!**

* * *

Too Many Questions

After a few minutes of trying to take everything in – and failing – the Doctor finally allowed his two rescuers, Zak and Kura, to take him back to their base; there were plenty of questions spinning about in his head but he figured that currently, safety was a top priority and even he could understand that standing around in a deserted tunnel discussing what was going on when presumably more Cybermen were heading their way was not a wise thing to be doing.

He walked as he normally did, hands buried deeply into the pockets of his trench coat, his eyes darting everywhere curiously, absorbing in as much detail as possible of his surroundings; however, they often found themselves resting on the gigantic Cyberman that was marching alongside him, it never looked at him, or at least, it never appeared to be looking at him, but the Doctor could never tell. Its deep black eyes never blinked, its monstrous face never displayed emotion… Cybermen were the enemy, what made this one so different?

A Cyberman waging war on organic beings was one thing; they were practically a mutated species of human that had stagnated from the moment of its birth, void of all emotion they were simply an unnatural entity; but a Cyberman that wanted to protect its organic brethren was even more unnatural. 'Zak' appeared to be quite empty in the feelings department, just like every other walking tin can, but there was something more to him that gave him the aura of humanity.

And that, in the Doctor's eyes, was wrong.

The girl named Kura was leading the small group, she never turned around but was clearly wary of her surroundings, becoming tense at any sound made, though most of the time the Doctor had heard nothing; in her hands she now held a retractable bow staff that had been attached to her back when the Time Lord had first collided with the pair, it was made from different types of metal and had obviously been hastily repaired on several occasions. On one end there was an amber stone, lighting their way and illuminating her tired, strained features.

She appeared to be quite the survivor, geared for any kind of battle, the Doctor frowned just thinking about it; it wasn't that he disapproved, after all he owed his life to the girl, it was just... she didn't look very old, no older than twenty surely, and yet simply from her behaviour, he knew that she was no stranger to warfare. He sighed, thinking of the many innocent people forced to fight to survive in the Universe, all of them still children and all of them suffering; at least this time, in this case, it hadn't been his doing.

His hearts sank as he remembered the words Donna had spoken to him the time they'd faced the Sontaran, when he'd discovered to what extent he had changed the life of Martha Jones.

"_Is that what you did to her? Turned her into a soldier?"_

The Doctor shivered.

The tunnel stretched on for miles and the trio never stopped until finally, they came to a large silver airlock that barred their way; Kura leant forward and placed her palm onto a silver plate on the wall where an indentation of a hand had been made, there was a whirring of machinery and then a small click as the computer registered her hand print, the door opened partially like a great set of teeth. The Doctor had expected it to open further, but the rusting that was visible on the mechanism apparently made that quite impossible; cautiously, they clambered into the room before the great metal doors slammed shut again, the Time Lord almost trapping his coat in the process.

Kura smirked, hiding it behind her hand when the stranger scowled at her; he was a bizarre man, with a strange little spaceship... still, it was nice to see a new face, and one so handsome too. With such _great_ hair!

But even as these thoughts formed in her mind she regretted them as she saw Zak's head turn quickly to face her, almost as though he'd just heard what she'd been thinking; the Cyberman raised his hand towards the alien man, fist clenched and he moved towards him in a threatening manner.

_Not again, _Kura wished she could keep a lid on her thoughts.

"Zak, don't do that! Stop it!"

The Cyberman ignored her, the Doctor had flattened himself against the airlock, eyeing the fist cautiously; strangely enough, it almost seemed as though he'd expected this behaviour, he wasn't nervous at all. Did he _know_ that one single touch and Zak could fry the guy with 10,000 volts?

"Zak!" Kura's voice was stern, "Treat our guests politely! What must he think?"

Zak's mouth flashed blue as he spoke to the Doctor; "State your name." It was a command the Time Lord didn't feel like disobeying.

"The Doctor."

"Invalid... State your name."

_Oh he hadn't seen __**that**__ one coming... _"The Doctor!"

"Illogical," barked the Cyberman, did it sound agitated? "A Doctor is a title for a profession, not a name."

"Ah, but I'm _The_ Doctor, not _A _Doctor..."

"Oh stop it, both of you!" Kura's brow furrowed in frustration, "we'll be here all lunar cycle if you carry on like this. It's obvious that he's not an enemy, Zak, he's made of flesh..." Much to the Doctor's distaste, Kura leant forwards and rapped her fist against his forehead. "See? Bone and flesh and brain matter..."

"Damaged brain matter," mumbled the Time Lord bitterly, but Kura and Zak ignored the remark; the Cyberman was looking intently into the girl's eyes... at least it _looked_ like he was. His fist was still inches away from the Doctor who felt like he needed to say something, anything, to survive a little longer; "look, _trust me_, I know it sounds like an odd name, but that's who I am."

His expression was so genuine that Kura felt as though she'd melt on the spot, something that was unlikely to happen to Zak, the Cyberman wasn't exactly a fluffy character; then again, she couldn't complain, Zak was being objective... _sort of_. He was ensuring the survival of her people and her father would never forgive her if she endangered the lives of the few remaining members of her team just for the sake of a pair of brown eyes and a _fabulous_ haircut; she looked up at the Cyberman and placed a hand tenderly on his outstretched arm, it was cool under her warm skin but the pair took comfort from the contact made.

"Just scan him, Zak," she whispered.

Zak nodded, retracted his arm and opened the logo on his chest once again; the thin blue streak of light ran up and down the startled Doctor who felt incredibly vulnerable and out of the loop – it was something he didn't feel very often, and he didn't like it. Scan him for what?

Kura seemed to sense what the Doctor was thinking and she turned to explain, "Zak can be very protective, and regardless of whether I believe you or not, I'm not really a match against this hunk of metal." She casually tapped Zak's shoulder, "he won't let you go any further into this base until he's scanned to check if what you say is genuine. I uploaded all the data I possibly could into his memory banks on species throughout the universe, he'll compare your physical structure with those he knows and produce his estimation of whether you intend to harm us or not..."

He must have looked hurt because Kura blushed, "sorry," she said. "It's incredibly rude, I know, but I've never been able to install manners into his system..."

Still, it wasn't just that that bothered the Doctor, the chances of Kura knowing anything about his species were very slim, they may have been the stuff of legends once, but now they were lost, the Universe had continued without them; what would happen when Zak came up with no answer? He didn't consider himself to be much of a match against the metal entity either...

The Cyberman finished the scanning process, the cavity in his chest sealed itself up and he stood motionless, as though trying to process what he'd just discovered; Kura was looking up at him, he turned to face her again and the pair locked their gaze. It was as though they were communicating...

... that just wasn't possible.

_Was it?_

The Doctor didn't know what to believe anymore.

There was a sharp intake of breath, "You're _that_ Doctor!?!"

Kura was staring at him, wide-eyed, open mouthed. The Time Lord must have spaced out; he couldn't remember the Cyberman ever telling the girl the results of his findings, or hadn't it needed to? His brow furrowed and he let out a short, exasperated sigh; "I've already told you, it's _The _Doctor; not _That _Doctor!"

"But you're... you're a Time Lord! You're the _last_ Time Lord! You're _That _Doctor, you're _The_ Doctor!"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to stare wide-eyed, she _knew_ about him? How was that possible?

"You're the stuff of legends, Doctor! You were considered a god amongst men! You walked on the surface of the Earth throughout its history." She paused, tying to find an example, something to back up the claim. "Lucius Caecilius Iucundus!" she stated triumphantly, "... the man whose family you saved from the fires of Pompeii, ... and Madame de Pompadour, you were the man who fell through the mirror... and Shakespeare, of course... Love Labour's Won – the play he never wrote!"

Kura could have gone on for a lot longer it seemed, the more she spoke about his adventures the more excited she became; but she must have seen the fear and confusion written on the Doctor's face because she cut herself short and blushed furiously. Zak had crossed his arms – a hilarious thing for a Cyberman to do, noted the Time Lord – but whether it was out of frustration or amazement, it was too hard to tell; besides, the Doctor had more important matters to discuss.

"How do you know about me!?"

The girl's cheeks reddened further, "... I – I just do. I'm into the history of the Earth, and mythology, I researched a lot, old text books from the planet, data files, TORCHWOOD records. Of course, most people would overlook you, you're just mentioned in passing in most history books, but I was intrigued. I realised that you weren't just involved in one period of history, you were _everywhere_, there were sightings and images and records about you during so many historical moments that it just wasn't possible to be a coincidence; so I did a lot of digging - research is something I am particularly good at – and I discovered the TORCHWOOD files, they practically told me everything about you."

"Then return the favour."

The girl blinked, surprised by the Doctor's sudden change in mood, from shock to bitterness; "what do you mean?"

"You discovered what you wanted to, I'm a Time Lord, not a threat, not an enemy; now you will tell me what I want to know, I want to know what you are, if _you_ are an enemy..."

The Cyberman stiffened, ready to protect Kura from the increasingly hostile Doctor.

"Why would we be your enemy?"

"Like you said, I've been _everywhere_. I don't suppose you came across the files about a certain event... the Battle of Canary Wharf, perhaps?" As he spoke, the Time Lord's eyes rested on the silver being in front of him, the resentment quite apparent in his chocolate eyes.

Kura's cheeks whitened instantly, the blood drained from her face as she registered why the Doctor had been particularly uncomfortable around the Cyberman, why he had not been surprised when Zak had threatened him and why it _had_ been a surprise when he had come to his aid. To the Doctor, Cybermen had been... and perhaps still would be, the enemy.

"Oh..."

"Yes, it is 'oh'. Now I want answers Kura Desporena Atropos and it's time that I was rewarded with some."

Zak was clearly struggling to hold back from physically attacking the Doctor, he wasn't exactly fuming but the fixed expression on his face was suddenly much more intimidating than it had been; still, the Doctor didn't care, he figured that their sudden discovery of who he was, was holding the tin can back. Kura placed a hand on Zak's shoulder firmly, her face a mixture of shame and determination; the two looked at each other again, and after a moment the Cyberman nodded, he turned and marched to the other side of the circular room where a second airlock was positioned, it was the only thing in the entire chamber apart from the three life forms. Zak punched in a code on the keypad and it shot open revealing a secondary tunnel, one well lit and maintained. Kura offered her hand to the Doctor timidly.

"Where are you taking me now? I'm going to get sick of tunnels."

"I'm taking you to my father, you're right, it is only fair that you know who we are but I am not the right person to tell you..."

"Will he tell me everything?"

"Perhaps. What do you want to know?"

"What planet we're on, why the Cybermen are here, what race you are, why Zak here is apparently on your side..." there was a pause, that cheeky grin of the Doctor's appeared to his face, revealing his white teeth, "... and how you two can communicate without even speaking to one another."

Kura returned his smile with one of her own, "I guess we really do have a lot of explaining to do. Well then, are you coming?" She was still offering her hand to him and this time the Doctor took it without hesitation. Her grin widened even further and she winked, her vibrant blue eyes flashing, "Allons-y," she added before the pair raced into the tunnel, Zak following behind.


	3. War, Wisdom and Innocence

**Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for the positive reviews, here's chapter three!**

* * *

**War, Wisdom and Innocence**

Thankfully, and to the Doctor's great relief, the second tunnel wasn't quite so long; it was apparent to him now that they were heading deep into what appeared to be a recently built planetary base, there were numerous airlocks along the way and the metal floor beneath their feet was worn down, clearly many people had once used this walkway. Now... now it was empty. The Doctor didn't dare think of how it had come to be so.

But he could imagine.

What awaited the trio behind the final air lock was another circular metallic room, well lit and filled with technology that the Time Lord had only ever dreamed of; the mother computer was in the centre, hexagonal in shape with a large antenna that stretched to the top of the dome, the controls flashing intermittently. Three people stood, hunched over the controls, unaware of the new arrivals.

"Father!" Kura cried and raced forward, an elderly looking gentleman with curly grey hair looked up from the computer in shock but his expression turned to one of relief when his sky blue eyes fell upon those of his daughter; he met her half way across the room, wrapped his slender arms around her and lifted her off her feet enthusiastically. Whatever his age, the man was doing well, but there were dark lines of worry etched into his face that even seeing his daughter safe and sound could not remove. They were the lines belonging to a man who had the weight of the world resting upon his shoulders. A man who had been forced to fight.

The Doctor knew how he felt.

A small cough from behind the happy pair brought everyone back to the moment, the old man turned back to his two partners, a young male and female, who appeared to be less than enthralled that Kura had returned; from what the Time Lord could read from their faces, they weren't particularly impressed to see the Cyberman either, and when they'd seen him... well, their startled expressions made the traveller wish he'd got a camera.

"Who the _hell _are you?"

The man who had asked the question had shoulder length black hair and dark skin, he was tall and well-built too, wearing an outfit quite comparable in condition to Kura's, as was the young woman's standing beside him; his startled expression had turned into one of distrust and curiosity, fair enough he probably hadn't a seen a stranger in a while, but that was no reason to be rude. Kura's father raised his head at the question and his eyes widened at the sight of the Time Lord, Kura let go and stepped back, standing between the two conflicting groups.

"Father, this is _the Doctor..."_

The time traveller didn't think that the man's eyes could get any wider, it just wasn't possible, but it was certainly apparent that Kura wasn't the only one who knew about his existence; although the weight of Kura's introduction was lost on the pair behind, the blonde female with the green eyes looking quite disgruntled.

"Who cares?" she barked, her arms folded protectively against her chest and looking clearly disinterested, "everyone on this damn rock is medically qualified."

Kura glared in her direction, and the Doctor cowered a little as he saw Zak still beside him clench his fists; the relationship between the Cyberman and the teen was growing ever more confused, questions formed in his head but he batted them away, _one thing at a time Doctor..._

The elderly man waved away the woman's interruption, "No, no, _no_ Calita; not _a _Doctor..." _Oh not this again_, thought the traveller, "**the **Doctor! The last of the Time Lords! The legendary time traveller! The –"

Kura cleared her throat and her father stopped mid-sentence, he looked at her inquisitively as she shook her head warningly. "Already been through this, Dad."

"Well what's he doing here?" Calita interrupted again, her tone less than friendly. Clearly the fact that he was a Time Lord was not all that impressive; the man beside her wasn't particularly fazed either.

"Thank you, that's precisely what **I **want to know!" cried the Doctor, gesturing to Calita, "What _am_ I doing here?"

The old man had not taken his eyes off Kura, clearly trying to ask her why she had not told him these things; for a moment the Doctor thought that perhaps Kura could hear _everyone's_ thoughts, but then he realised that the man's expression was pretty much readable. The girl shuffled her feet and blushed under his gaze, "I thought _you_ should tell him," she whispered, "he needs to understand, I don't think I'm the right person."

Kura's father nodded his head and shifted his blue eyes to the Doctor once more, "my apologies, Doctor, where are my manners? My name, Sir, is Professor Metis Atropos..."

Now it was the Doctor's turn to be amazed, he almost said "_The _Professor Atropos_?"_ But decided against it, all the repetition was getting on his nerves. Still, his face must have given away what he was thinking because Metis chuckled, Kura beamed beside him, proud of her heritage.

"I can see you've heard of me. Professor Atropos, winner of the Universal Noble Peace Prize 2167..." his smile faded, "how ironic that you and I should be so alike. Two men so desperate to bring about peace, and yet are forced to fight against their will."

Yeah, that's how the Doctor felt.

"But you won that award for the scientific lunar base on Athena, the first moon of Carmentis. How did you come to be here, fighting the Cybermen?"

"Where do you think you are Doctor? _This is Athena_, or what remains of her anyway."

The Time Lord's hearts sank, he remembered hearing about Athena years ago when it had first been opened; it was a first in this part of the galaxy, a scientific research centre and school focusing on producing peace-promoting artefacts and substances and the teaching of talented individuals. Once the most peaceful place in the Universe, Athena had become a place of war...

"It is arguably our fault that we are in the position you see today..."

"Well, _some_ of us are more to blame than _others_" added Kura, bitterly; her eyes darted to Calita and the man beside her who returned her gaze with sneers.

"Yes, _thank you Kura, _leave Seth and Calita out of this." He looked sternly at his daughter for a moment, "If it is anyone's fault, it's mine." Then he turned back to the Doctor and began his story.

"This base has been a home to many scientists and students ever since I moved here with Kura in the year 2155, over the years we have developed our experiments, broadened our understanding of the universe and strived to improve life for everyone. About three years ago we began researching the entity known as the void and the theory of parallel universes..."

The Doctor did not like where this was going.

"Then, a year ago we finally built 'The Gate', a portal that the group of scientists leading the research experiment believed would allow us to open a rift connecting this universe and the void, and then one day hopefully, the worlds beyond it. Six months ago, they perfected it... and one month ago, they used it..."

***

"_Father, __**please**__ listen to me." _

_Kura was finding it hard to keep up with Metis, he was pacing along the corridor with such determination and focus that his daughter found herself tripping over her own feet as she fought to remain ahead of him. She wanted him to look at her; she wanted him to grasp just how important the situation was._

"_Father –"_

"_Kura!" Metis stopped dead in his tracks causing Kura to stumble backwards; she looked up to see him frowning down upon her, his sky blue eyes stormy with vexation. "This has got to stop; I am fed up of having this conversation with you..."_

"_But Dad –"_

"_No! The experiment has to go ahead, the council have already put it forward to the Carmentian governors, we can't back down now... if we do, they'll halve this place's funding. You know I'm already in trouble with them; I can't afford to make the situation any worse. I know you're worried about the risks, but Seth and Aegle know what they're doing... so do the rest of the team; are you sure this isn't just because you're jealous? I know how much you wanted to work on the project, but you knew you couldn't, it may be too dangerous with your condition..."_

_The very suggestion that Kura was jealous of those two was repugnant to her, no, of course she wasn't jealous! Seth, Aegle and almost every other student on this damn base made her life a misery, all of them adamant believers that she was only at the school because her dad was the Head Scientist. As for her 'condition'... _

"_Stop calling it that, Dad! And anyway, that's not important, don't you get it? I wanted to work on that project because I wanted to understand __**more**__ about the void! I never wanted to open it! You don't know what's the other side, you don't know what could be waiting for us when the gate is opened! They did it too, Dad; the humans at the Battle of Canary Wharf... don't you remember the stories about the ghosts??"_

"_They could have been just that, Kura, stories!"_

"_But Dad!"_

_Unfortunately for Kura, she was cut off in her protests when sirens sounded above them, the shrill sound ringing through the metal tunnels; a voice spoke over them as those present in the corridors desperately tried to cut out the ear splitting noise. _

"_Can Professor Atropos please come to the Gate immediately!"_

_It felt as though something was lodged in Kura's throat, her eyes caught her father's and they exchanged worried expressions before both shot off towards the desired location; Kura just hoped that it wasn't too late, she had studied the contents of the void, she knew all too well about the Time Lord who had sealed away a monstrosity... and she wanted to keep it that way. _

_She and her father approached the lab and entered to watch a crowd of six or seven students and professors turn to register their entrance. Calita was there and she sneered at the sight of Kura, "only authorised personnel are allowed in this room, we wouldn't want to aggravate your condition, would we Kura?"_

_The teen snarled at the blonde, she was tall, thin and tanned and would always have her long golden locks covering a side of her face; that really annoyed Kura, then again, everything about Calita annoyed Kura, even that mole above her lip. When she'd finally finished eyeing Kura up and down, she simply flicked her blonde curls from her eyes and beamed at Professor Atropos expectantly, clearly waiting for him to dismiss his daughter. _

_Much to Calita's disgust, Metis shook his head._

"_Kura can stay, she won't move any closer to the device – now, what seems to be the problem?" He paced over to the group of scientists who were huddled around the large controls, Kura hanging back at the door receiving more dirty looks from the blonde but gritting her teeth to hold back a curt reply._

"_It's our sensors, Professor," Aegle said, his voice was edgy, excited, "they've picked up something, something in the void..."_

_Kura felt her chest tighten, her stomach churned and her heart rate increased. That could not be good..._

"_Something in the void?" Metis was trying to look as though he was giving his fullest attention to the readings being processed on the control screen but his eyes flitted to his daughter from time to time, watching her body become tense, knowing what this would be doing to her._

"_Yes'sir," Seth answered, "we're picking up at least eighteen individual signals... and whatever is the other side of that gate... is alive. They locked onto the signal we emitted about an hour ago as we prepared to run the experiment, they've not tried to contact us but they're certainly waiting for some kind of interaction, their signals became clearer when we opened the first time lock. We just wanted to the go ahead from you, whether we should continue or not..."_

_Everybody in the room looked to Metis, the seven students eager to press on... and Kura, there was Kura, shaking her head only the tiniest bit, her eyes pleading with him to reconsider. But when her father simply returned her gaze half-heartedly, and when he sighed and closed his eyes, she knew what his answer would be; he had to do this, he was under too much pressure, nothing bad would happen, she was just jealous, bla bla bla..._

_She'd heard it all before, he just found new ways of saying that she was delusional, that the accident that she'd had when she was younger had damaged her, that her 'condition' was the cause of her paranoia..._

_But Kura had read every file on the events that had lead to the sealing of the void, she knew what was waiting, and they were letting them through._

"_Dad, please..."_

_But it was too late, Aegle had already pressed down the controls necessary to open the Gate that was standing in the centre of the room; it was a giant metal archway, with two antennae either side from which two huge bolts of blue electricity were shot directly into the centre of the Gate. The bolts appeared to hit something, like a glass panel, but where they had struck there was now a tear suspended in the air, like a rip through fragile fabric; the hole grew, stretching upwards until it was a seam that gradually tore itself open, revealing a blinding light._

_Everyone gasped, shielding their eyes from the dazzling light; Kura pulled down her goggles, desperate to remain looking at the hole in reality, the hole that should not be possible. She was searching, searching for some kind of life, some kind of movement. _

_She didn't have to search for long._

_Silhouettes were emerging from the light, blurred at first but growing ever more solid as the hole increased in size; Calita cheered, so did Seth and Aegle and all the other students, thrilled that on their first run, they had found life within the void. Metis had backed away, he was now standing beside his daughter, his hand holding hers; he could feel her trembling, she was terrified, but she never pulled her gaze away from the approaching figures._

_They were close now, almost distinguishable, so close to passing through; Aegle had stepped forward, his curly ginger hair swaying in the powerful current of air created by the Gate, his hand was extended to the visitors._

_Kura could see them now, their suits of armour reflecting the dazzling light of the void, they were just as frightening as she had pictured them._

_Her grip tightened on the old man's hand, "Father... we have to go."_

"_What?"_

"_We have to leave, __**right now**__."_

_One of the void dwellers was passing through the thin layer of permeable matter that separated the Void from reality, a silver hand slipping through, extended and open; Aegle took hold of it and began to shake it as the rest of the creature appeared._

"_On behalf of Athena, first moon of Carmentis, I would like to welcome you -"_

_Aegle never finished his sentence, he was dead on the floor in seconds; screams filled the room, Metis gasped, more creatures were passing through the Gate, they could not be stopped. Someone pressed the alarm, sirens sounded, the entire lab was in uproar; Kura didn't wait a single second longer, she turned and ran from the room, pulling her father with her, the others not far behind._

_Echoes filled the corridor: "Delete! Delete!"_

"_What were those things?" Metis was looking at his daughter desperately, Kura didn't turn to face him, she just kept running._

"_Cybermen, Dad. They were Cybermen." _

***

Everyone in the room was silent, Metis had stopped talking, his face solemn and guilty; Calita and Seth were finally looking bashful and Kura, well Kura didn't seem to be there any more, not in spirit anyway...

She'd moved away from her father as he'd spoken and had edged her way back to the Doctor and Zak who had placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, her eyes had glazed over but she had raised her own hand to stroke the Cyberman's metal fingers; the Time Lord was incredulous, he couldn't believe that such sensible, intelligent people had actually thought that opening the void had been a good idea...

Sometimes it felt like the Doctor was the only being in the entire universe who ever saw sense; he felt like making this known, his blood boiling just thinking about the stupidity of these people.

_Well, maybe not Kura..._

Kura....

Of course! There was Kura, the girl who had warned them against opening the void in the first place, who knew the damage that the Cybermen were capable of creating... and yet **here** she was in some kind of bizarre _relationship_ with one of them!

Metis caught the expression on the Doctor's face, telling him that he was not yet satisfied, that there was much more that he needed to know.

Be patient Doctor, our story isn't finished yet..."

* * *

**I know that this doesn't cover everything, but if i'd explained how Zak came to be in this chapter as well then this chapter would have been at least twice the size it is now. I used the flashback to make sure the whole chapter wasn't just Metis blabbing on to the Doctor. Kura's character is beginning to develop well, in my original plans she didn't have what they're describing as a 'condition' but then i realised that it will make more sense in the long run. Don't worry, a lot will become clear in the next chapter :)**


	4. How Things Have Come To Pass

**Author's Note: hey, sorry it's taken me so long to update. but i am incredibly grateful to anyone who has taken the time to read this and to review the story so far! Chapter Four is currently the longest chapter and STILL i don't seem to be getting anywhere! but i hope you enjoy it, i've almost finished the background of the characters and how they've come to be where they are. and yes, there is a cliff hanger mid memory, but i decided that that was the best way to keep you reading :) please enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Four

How Things Have Come To Pass

"_That_ was the understatement of the millennium," stated the Doctor, perhaps a little too bitterly for his own liking; Metis flinched slightly but Kura, who was now watching the Time Lord intently, seemed to agree. It appeared as though reliving the story had brought back feelings of resentment in the teenage girl; remembering all over again that she had been the only one to protest against the opening of the Void, had had plenty of evidence to back up her claims that it was dangerous, and yet had been ignored regardless even by her own father, had made her suddenly angry. She was shaking with what was either grief or fury but she remained beside Zak, waiting patiently for what else was to come.

The Doctor took her expression as encouragement to continue asking the questions that had been pestering him since he'd crash landed; it was a relief to finally begin understanding what was actually going on. But then there was a question all in itself...

"Why did I crash?"

For a moment, everyone in the room looked blank, as though this had not crossed their minds either.

"The same reason we can't leave." Seth's reply had been unexpected, partly because it wasn't a very clear answer and secondly because he had been the one to say it. But apparently that was all that the Doctor was going to get out of him, he caught the eye of Kura and raised an eyebrow, clearly asking if she'd care to elaborate.

"There were hundreds of us on this planet," her voice was barely a whisper, "one thousand, one hundred and eighty three to be exact... eighty two after the death of Aegle. After the initial panic, during which we lost seventy six people, we managed to seal the Cybermen off in one of six of the lunar base areas; we're in the area called Clotho at the moment, the Cybermen were originally trapped in Lachesis – obviously that isn't the case now but at the time it saved all our lives. We appealed to Carmentis for help and they sent us an emergency shuttle to allow one thousand of us to get off this moon..."

That didn't add up.

"But you said..."

"I know, Doctor, I know. One hundred and six were not chosen to return to the planet, they were considered as unimportant, not worth the extra effort, or deserving of their fate..."

"What do you mean!?" The Doctor couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Why didn't they save everyone?"

Metis cleared his throat, "Carmentis and Athena have been at odds ever since I opened this lunar base. I refused from the first moment to use this base to produce weaponry for wars and that made me rather unpopular with the Carmentian governors; our race is particularly interested in mythology, the Carmentians believe that strength is born in battle so my refusal to fall in line with the governors' plans upset them greatly. The relationship was never the same after that. And when they learnt that our peaceful experiments had led to the return of the feared Cybermen, they feared for their own planets safety. I made a deal with them; one thousand would be allowed to flee, leaving the remaining one hundred and six to fend for themselves until the Cybermen were no longer considered as a threat..."

The history of Athena seemed to be getting worse and worse the more the Time Lord heard, and his expression darkened as he began to understand just how ruthless the Carmentian governors must be to do such a thing to such a peaceful group of people. "Metis, why weren't you chosen to return to the planet? Surely not allowing you to be rescued would cause outrage amongst the galaxy?"

"He _was_ chosen to go home." Kura was looking at her father as though she was disappointed in him.

"Then why, Metis, are you still here?"

Metis looked up from his daughter to the Doctor and then back to his daughter again, his bright blue eyes shining with determination, "because Kura was not on the list of the saved… how could I abandon her here when she was the one who warned us about the Void? I begged the governors to let her take my place but they refused, I believe it was out of spite; they chose another scientist when it became clear that I would not change my mind. I had to adhere to the rules, the chosen left for Carmentis and then the governor's initiated a planetary quarantine…"

"What's a planetary quarantine?"

Kura picked up the story again, "the reason you crash-landed. Metis created it, it's like a huge force field that surrounds the entire moon; it allows ships to get in, but they can't get out – **nothing** can get out. Dad built it before I was even born, on Carmentis, so they had the technology to initiate it; there is a secondary controller on Athena in the Lachesis base that will allow us to shut it down..."

"...but doing that before the Cybermen are completely destroyed will mean that other innocent people may suffer." Finished Metis, the Doctor admired his willingness to sacrifice himself, and Kura's expression told him that she felt the same; Seth and Calita however, looked less than impressed.

"How many of you are left?"

Another awkward silence.

"… there are eleven of us. Ten if you don't include Zak."

_Only ten people are still alive!?_ The Doctor had not prepared himself for such a shocking and staggering statistic. "And how many Cybermen?"

"Eighteen came through the Void, but they brought with them another fifty empty shells… shells which they managed to reanimate with fifty of us."

"That makes sixty-eight." The odds appeared to be against them, it was a miracle they'd survived so long.

"We've terminated thirty three, thirty four if you count Zak." Calita concluded, her face hard and unfeeling; but the Doctor didn't judge her for that, you had to be harsh when fighting Cybermen, just because they had the brains of those you once knew and perhaps even loved didn't mean they felt the same in return. Cybermen were cold, callous, unfeeling; anything with a beating heart was automatically the enemy; anything that experienced emotions was either purged or upgraded…

One Cyberman was now the exception.

Zak.

It was becoming quickly apparent to the Doctor, though he couldn't quite explain why, that a great deal rested on the shoulders of Kura and Zak, his origins and the connection between them defied the laws of the universe, defied the Time Lord's own perspective of the world around him… their relationship was important, and so was their history.

"Tell me about Zak."

Metis cleared his throat again but the Doctor shook his head and gestured to the man's daughter, "No, Kura needs to tell me…"

The warrior with the jet black hair and the metal companion hesitated for a minute but with an encouraging look from the traveller, summoned the courage to begin speaking about the topic that may well be the key to saving everyone's lives.

"What you must first understand, Doctor, is how the Cybermen work. And I don't mean what you think I mean… The moon was working on more than one project when the Cybermen came through, the gate into the Void was one and another was the exploration and development of telepathy. As I've mentioned, the lunar base is divided into six sections, each section has an antenna like the one you see before you," Kura gestured to the large contraption built into the mother computer in the centre of the room, "they create a telepathic field, allowing thoughts to be transmitted from one section of the base to another; but the experiment was not complete when the Cybermen arrived, we had not yet managed to create a field suitable for our own thoughts to be transmitted. To make matters worse, the central computer and antenna, the one that powers the field, is situated in the base named Lachesis…"

"…and that's where you sealed the Cybermen," finished the Doctor. "Brilliant…"

"Yes, it would appear that the Cybermen understood the nature of the device; they managed to programme themselves into the computer mainframe – they –" Kura struggled momentarily, trying to find the appropriate word, " – they uploaded themselves, making it possible for them to transmit their thoughts to one another. That's why, when one Cyberman finds you, you can't hang around… more will no doubt be on their way. We'd turn off the field, but it's too dangerous, the Cybermen know what danger it would put them in so they guard it with their life…"

"Yeah," interrupted Seth, his tones bitter once again, "but we still tried to switch it off four times!"

Everyone ignored him, they all waited for Kura to continue; even though it was only the Doctor who did not known the entire truth about how Zak came to be, it appeared as though the others wanted to hear the story once more, as though they too had come to see how important this one Cyberman had come to be…

The teen took a deep breath.

"I was on a recon mission, trying to find some tools for maintenance work; there'd been a pretty violent clash against some Cybermen and our defences were down in one of our other bases… We may not have been able to use the telepathy device, but once we connected it to our mother computer, we could use it to pick up the locations of the Cybermen from their brain waves and the messages they were transmitting…"

***

_The corridor was dark and dusty, no one and nothing had been down here in weeks; having been closed even before the metal army had arrived, Kura was certain that the Cybermen didn't even know the tunnel existed. Still, she shuffled the brown sack of tools further onto her shoulder out of the way and clasped the gun in her sweating hands a little tighter, just in case._

_If there was one thing she'd learnt, it was always to be prepared._

_Before the Cybermen had arrived, the girl had never thought that she would one day touch a weapon, let alone use one; and yet here she was, seventeen years old and responsible for at least ten deaths. The others didn't count the Cybermen as fatalities, but to Kura they were still alive; it didn't matter if they couldn't feel, it didn't matter that those who had been converted could no longer recognise her, there was something human still in them…_

_But she tried not to think about that._

_Seeing them as empty, as hollow… it made them all the easier to kill – no – __**terminate**__._

"_Kura, come in Kura. Do you copy?"_

_The communicator in her ear buzzed and screeched as a connection was made making the teen wince in annoyance and shock, "Kura here, Aether, that you?"_

"_The one and only. You alright? Your father's getting worried, you've been gone longer than the allocated time you were given; do you want to give the guy a heart attack?"_

"_Like a heart attack would finish my father off… I'm fine. Stop getting your knickers in a twist, do I sound like I'm in any trouble?" _

"_No, but then even if you were you'd still be talking as though life were a breeze; you're too calm and collected for your own good. It's not that I don't believe you capable enough of coping with the situations that you are so good at getting into…" Kura smiled involuntarily, Aether had always been kind to her, he was a tough young soldier with a warm and tender heart; he always made her smile when she most needed it, "…it's just… we can't seem to be able to track you, your registering device isn't being picked up on the scanner."_

_The smile on Kura's face was replaced with an expression of curiosity and surprise, "You can't? Is it working properly?"_

"_As far as we know, yes; we're picking up all forty one Cybermen, and we're all present and correct – apart from you, you've fallen off our radar. Where __are__ you?"_

"_I'm in the maintenance tunnel in Thalia, it was built to be robust, clearly it's too deep into the moon's crust for it to pick up the signal… hang on, how am I picking you up on my communicator?"_

"_You wouldn't believe how much is powering our communication device this end; we've had to divert power from the mother computer in order to make the transmission strong enough for you to be able to pick it up!"_

"_Holy Athena, that means you could cover up anything down here… we could hide our existence from the Cybermen! If all of them are still on the radar than that means they're not using the back-up maintenance tunnels, Aether, these babies circle the entire base! We'd be able to get into Lachesis to switch off the telepathic field __**and **__the quarantine net!"_

_Kura's heart was racing with excitement, what an idea! There weren't many of them remaining now, it was something like eighteen; it was a small enough group to go undetected in these tunnels, the Cybermen would never know what they were planning until they'd actually done it. Nothing was particularly clear regarding how the Cybermen worked, but the teen was ready to believe that without the telepathic field connecting all of them, they wouldn't be quite as efficient when it came to hunting them down._

_She was still making her way through the corridor but her excitement resulted in her paying less attention to her environment, her grip on her gun had gone slack and she was no longer being quiet, the metal tools in her rucksack clanged together noisily; the young soldier was pretty certain that the only two people who knew about her location were herself and Aether. The tunnels hadn't been used in ages, and Aether had told her himself that all forty one Cybermen were present in known areas…_

…_wait a minute…_

"_Aether, you still there?"_

_The more worried tone of Kura alerted the soldier on the other end, it wasn't exactly panic, but it still caused him alarm; "Yes, what's wrong?"_

"_We've only killed – terminated – we've only terminated twenty six Cybermen…"_

"_Yeah, so?"_

"_You said forty one were registering on your scanners… that means one Cyberman hasn't been accounted for…"_

_There was silence on the other end of the communicator, Kura made her way to a door dividing the tunnel and hesitantly held her hand out to the control pad preparing to open it; she didn't know if the technology in this abandoned section would still work, what's more, she didn't know if continuing on her adventure was such a good idea now one Cyberman had disappeared. Her communications device crackled as Aether gave her his opinion on the matter._

"_Shit."_

_Rolling her eyes, the teen punched in a combination on the small pad upon the wall and held her breath as the mechanisms holding the door shut grinded and struggled to fulfil the command issued. What would be better? For the door to fail to open so that she couldn't go any further into what might be a death trap? Or to know that the hope of using the connection of tunnels to sneak into the enemy territory would break apart seeing as the technology in the old corridors was too dilapidated and run down? What if it was just a glitch? What if the rogue Cyberman had simply malfunctioned? This was the team's last chance of survival, these tunnels may be their ticket out of here, alive and still made of flesh!_

_She couldn't stop, not now._

"_Kura… you're not going any further are you?" Aether's voice was filled with panic, voices beneath his told the girl that she had not been the only to notice his worried tone; someone was asking the boy questions, but he had only ears for her. "Kura?!"_

_The door began to open, like a great set of teeth waiting to devour its prey; the teen swallowed, her body paralysed with anticipation, expectation…_

… _and then complete and unadulterated fear…._

"_Kura!" Aether was desperate, "Kura, what's going on down there?!"_

"_Aether…" the girl's voice was hoarse with fear, she hadn't moved, she was still frozen on the spot, her eyes wide with terror. "Aether, the forty second Cyberman… I've found him…"_

"_Shit… Kura, run, just RUN!"_

_The last thing Kura needed was to be told twice._


End file.
